FICTION

Beastly Verse

by JooHee YOON
, ed. illus. by JooHee Yoon. 48p. Enchanted Lion. 2015. Tr $18.95. ISBN 9781592701667.
COPY ISBN
RedReviewStarK-Gr 4—Yoon's bold imagination is evidenced by her illustrations of these 16 animal-related poems by an eclectic group of writers including Lewis Carroll, D.H. Lawrence, and surrealist Robert Desnos. The verses vary from the nonsensical, such as Laura E. Richards's "Eletelephony," to the sublime, such as Walter de la Mare's "Dream Song." By combining printmaking, drawing, and digital techniques and relying upon three Pantone colors, Yoon has created a work of art, full of vibrant colors, striking patterns, and playful layouts. To capture William Blake's "The Tiger," for instance, Yoon uses a gatefold that reveals part of the tiger amid a background of wild forest ferns on each page, with the color scheme moving from greens to yellows, until the tiger's head emerges, ablaze like the sun.
VERDICT An excellent, innovative approach to poetry.
Reviewed by Teresa Pfeifer, The Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA
Sixteen animal poems draw on the usual suspects' (Nash, Blake, Belloc, etc.) most obvious poems ("The Eel," "The Tiger," "The Yak"); but you wouldn't be buying this book for the poems but for the pictures. The book is big, square, and sturdy, with thick off-white paper subduing the crazy embellishment poured onto each page via overlays of three primary colors.
 , May 01, 2015

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